


An Earthling Tradition

by aretia



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Halloween, Multi, Pumpkin carving
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-03
Updated: 2017-11-03
Packaged: 2019-01-28 19:07:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12613400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aretia/pseuds/aretia
Summary: Allura has never carved a pumpkin for Halloween, so Lance is explaining it to her when—wait a minute, Keith, you haven’t either?!





	An Earthling Tradition

**Author's Note:**

> For @virvenotion on Tumblr as a pinch hit for the VLD Halloween Exchange

“Happy Halloween!” Lance shouted as he burst into the common room, tossing a handful of orange confetti.

Allura looked up from her lap, where her attention had been focused on grooming the mice with a tiny comb. “What is Halloween?” she asked.

Lance lit up with a bright smile, as he always did whenever he got to talk about Earth customs. He sat down on the couch next to Allura and explained, “It’s a holiday on Earth where we wear costumes and eat candy, watch scary movies, carve pumpkins—”

“What’s a pumpkin?” 

“Oh, a pumpkin is a big, orange fruit,” Lance said, gesturing with his arms to indicate how big a pumpkin was. “And we carve them. We hollow them out and carve faces in them, and then light a candle inside and it makes a lantern…” Allura was still staring at him with that confused look on her face, eyes wide and head tilted to the side. It was adorable, but she still didn’t seem to understand what he was saying. 

Just then, Keith walked through the door of the lounge. “Keith! Help me out here,” Lance said. “I’m trying to explain to Allura how Earthlings carve pumpkins on Halloween.”

“I’ve never done that before,” Keith said.

“What?!” Lance said incredulously. “But Halloween was, like, your thing back at the Garrison! You always won the costume contest!”

“Well yeah, I like dressing up for parties and stuff,” said Keith. “But I never got to do any of that kid stuff like trick-or-treating or carving pumpkins. I grew up in the desert, remember?”

“This is a tragedy!” Lance wailed. “You’ve never experienced Halloween! Allura gets a free pass because she’s an alien, but… wait a minute. You’re also an alien.” Keith threw him a pout and rolled his eyes at that. Lance shuffled over to where he was sitting and put his arm around Keith. “I’ll just have to show you how we Earthlings do it, and get you a pumpkin to carve for Halloween!” 

“But if pumpkins only grow on Earth, where are we going to find one?” Allura asked.

“I’ll figure out something,” Lance declared.

~

Lance, Allura, and Keith wandered around the Olkari market in the golden sunshine, examining the brightly colored alien produce. “Ooh!” Allura squealed, diving for a shiny purple fruit on top of a bin in one of the stalls. She held it up to Lance and asked, “Would this work?”

“It’s a little small,” Lance said. “Might be hard to get a candle inside it.”

“But they’re my favorite!” Allura pleaded, eyes sparkling. 

Lance blushed and rubbed the back of his head. “Oh, you can get it if you want. But a pumpkin doesn’t have to be edible. We don’t eat what’s inside it, usually.”

“Really? That seems like a waste,” Allura remarked.

“I guess so. Sometimes people cook stuff with them…” Lance trailed off and glanced behind him. “Wait a minute, where did Keith go?”

Then, he spotted _something_ walking towards them down the center aisle of the market. The legs appeared to be Keith’s, but everything above the waist was hidden behind an enormous, orange, round fruit. 

Keith placed the fruit down on the path in front of him for a second and looked around. “Guys? Where are you?” he called. Lance waved, and Keith hefted the thing up again and dashed over, still looking like a terrifying Halloween monster with a pumpkin for a torso. He set it down at their feet and then, slightly sweaty and out of breath, pointed his thumb behind him. “They have these at the stall over there! They’re just like real Earth pumpkins!” 

“That’s incredible,” Lance said, kneeling in front of the alien pumpkin and tapping at its surface. “But don’t you think it’s a little too heavy? How are we going to get it back to the castle?”

“It isn’t heavy,” Keith gloated, grinning through his labored breaths.

“ _Sure_ ,” Lance said skeptically. He slid his hands under it and tried to lift it up, and ended up falling on top of it. “Keith! That’s _quiznaking_ heavy! How did you lift it in the first place?”

“Let me try,” Allura said. She passed her purple fruit to Lance, and effortlessly scooped up the giant pumpkin in her hands. Keith and Lance’s jaws dropped. 

~

They returned to the castle with candles, Allura’s tiny purple pumpkin, and Keith’s ridiculously huge pumpkin. Lance didn’t get one, as he figured he would be too busy teaching Keith and Allura how to carve them to do one himself. Besides, while he liked the giant alien pumpkin, he didn’t want to make someone carry another one of those monsters. 

Keith was sitting with his legs crossed on the floor of the lounge, in front of his pumpkin, which was almost as tall as he was sitting down. “Okay, first, let me go borrow a knife from Hunk—” Lance said, just as Keith pulled his Marmora knife out of the holster on the back of his belt. “Right. Never mind,” Lance muttered. Keith stabbed the knife into the side of the pumpkin. “Wait! You have to cut off the top and hollow it out first,” Lance said. Keith shrugged, and pulled out his knife, poking it in again closer to the top. He began to cut a circle around the stem, sticking his tongue out in concentration. 

“Okay, done!” Allura said proudly, holding up the empty shell of her purple fruit. She wiped some of the juice from her mouth.

“Uh, you’re supposed to carve something in it. Like a scary face,” Lance said. “That’s the fun part.”

“Oh, right!” Allura exclaimed. She picked up her scalpel and set to work with a determined expression on her face, already having something in mind. 

Lance sat down on the couch next to Allura, behind Keith. Keith leaned back against Lance’s legs, and Lance carded his fingers through Keith’s hair. Lance laid his head on Allura’s shoulder and let himself doze off, exhausted from the day at the market.

“Okay, Allura, it’s ready!” Keith announced. Lance opened his eyes and looked down. Keith’s pumpkin looked sort of like a face, but more like a house, with two windows and a door. 

“Are you ready for the candles?” Lance asked, but it seemed like Keith had a different idea. He placed a ramp he had carved out of the spare pumpkin shell in front of the door. Allura set her smaller fruit on the floor, and the largest mouse, Platt, climbed inside of it, and used it as a vehicle to roll up the ramp. He hopped inside Keith’s pumpkin and then rolled the fruit back down the ramp to the other mice. Keith and Allura looked at each other, beaming. Keith stood up and sat on the couch beside Lance, watching the mice perform from above.

“You were right, they actually did it,” said Keith. 

“They’re so talented!” Allura praised.

“Oh my gosh, that’s so cute!” said Lance. “How did you guys come up with this? This is definitely the best Halloween pumpkin I’ve ever seen.” 

Lance hugged Allura and Keith, elated that he had gotten to show them this. It wasn’t exactly the Halloween he knew, but it was theirs.


End file.
